Four Seasons Gourmet Diaries at ITC Gardenia

Last week, I was invited for the Four Seasons Gourmet Diaries with Swiss chef Peter Wyss from Gstaad Palace. The event was held at ITC Gardenia and it was a small gathering of people that included bloggers, journalists and other members from the media industry.

Four Seasons Wines are famous for chronicling gourmet food pairings with the award winning Four Seasons varietals and French oak cask matured Reserve range. Chef Peter Wyss has created culinary delights at the Gstaad Palace for the last forty years, balancing contemporary influences with the rich freshness of traditional ingredients and recipes. His food draws subtle inspirations from Swiss, German and French, amongst the most revered international gourmet capitals of the world.

Our evening kicked off with a round of delicious breads with Bouvet Brut Rose Excellence (which, by the end of the night, was deemed the best wine unanimously). The lightly salmon pink sparkling wine with a flavours of ripe strawberries and floral notes from the Loire region of France had everyone at the table giving it the nod of approval. It was light, fresh and perfect to kickstart the evening.

The delectable journey of the evening unfolded with our first course, thyme’s light fragrance adding a nostalgic aroma to Champignons Paris, the Cappuccino soup with local mushrooms. I'm usually not a big fan of mushrooms in soup as I think it's a waste of perfectly good mushrooms, but this soup made me change my mind. Firstly, the mushrooms weren't finely chopped, so it wasn't those floating bits that you get but slices of chunky mushrooms, which added double the flavour to the soup.  The foam also blended in quite well.

Champignon Paris Soup

Following this, we had a quick appetizer of Potato Timbale topped with Smoked Salmon. It was a cold appetizer, something that I relished, and the chef said it served as a small serving of a salad. The potato bits were nice and moist and the smoked salmon added a very refreshing touch.

Potato Timbale with Smoked Salmon

For our next course, we had the Simmered local Sea Bass medallion with asparagus crust and tomato marmalade paired with the zesty, fresh and herbaceous Four Seasons Sauvignon Blanc. While I found the sea bass  to be perfectly cooked, I felt it was a tad too bland for my taste and felt it needed more seasoning. The mashed potatoes were of a lovely, silky consistency, but again a bland pairing with the fish.The fruity acidity of the Sauvignon Blanc made up for my fish, so I wasn't complaining.

Sea Bass with Asparagus Crust & Tomato Marmalade

For the main course, we tried the Roasted Lamb rack with Espelette pepper jelly, Barolo sauce with shallots, Spätzli with wild garlic, served with Seasonal vegetables. The lamb was done a perfect pink, just the way I like it, and the pepper jelly added a whole new dimension of flavour. The Barolo sauce wasn't overpowering and the Spätzli was a little too dry for my liking. The lamb was served with French Oak Cask matured Four Seasons Barrique Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. The complex aromas of this wine with blackcurrant and spices heightened the senses with lamb, yet, not too spicy to dominate the flavour of the jelly and Barolo sauce.

Roasted Lamb Rack with Espelette Pepper Jelly

The pièce de résistance of the night was the dessert, that we couldn't wait to try. Chef Wyss
presented a magnificent dessert prepared with Lindt bitter chocolate sweet with lemon mousse and raspberries and raspberry ice-cream and natural yoghurt. While I was a bit skeptical about there being a bit too many flavour profiles, one bite of this dessert made me change my mind. The bitterness of the chocolate, sourness of the lemon mousse and sweetness from raspberries all worked well in harmony. The ice-cream had an intriguing, yet a pleasant taste. The dessert was paired with Four Seasons Blush that beautifully accentuated the contrasting flavours of the dessert. I ended up going for seconds for dessert and one (maybe two) more glass(es) of wine.

Lindt bitter chocolate sweet with lemon mousse and raspberries

Petit Fours

Post dessert, we concluded with a delightful batch of Petit Fours that we couldn't stay away from. 5 minutes down, all the plates were clean. Overall, we had an amazing night with good food and good wine. The food and wine pairings were excellent, and the chef and the management took exceptional care of us, especially to those of us who were firing questions by the minute. Also, The Four Seasons Bouvet Rose is now officially in my wine collection. I would love to experiment with it for different kinds of food pairings. Can't wait! :)

The Mask

Last week, a friend from Wooplr and I got together to check out this restaurant Mask, at the Aurick Boutique Hotel. Located at JP Nagar 6th Phase, the stretch is quite filled with a sizeable number of restaurants, and I must admit, this was only my second time venturing into the area. The last time I visited (which was 4 years back), it seemed quite dead, but is now blossoming with plenty of dining spots and coffee shops.

Notice how the wine glass craftily makes its way into the 'mask'.

The Aurick Boutique Hotel primarily has 3 places you could dine - 2 restaurants and one coffee shop that is open 24x7. The Maori restaurant focuses on Indo Pacific cuisine, while The Mask is a  resto bar serving continental fare. The view of the city from Mask is quite lovely, and it was a pity that I visited during lunch time. The view would be done more justice if I had probably stopped by for dinner instead.

I was definitely a big fan of the interiors.

Our server started us off with the mocktail of the day, which he claimed were Appletinis (though it had no alcohol), but was simply a weird apple milk shake (is that even a thing?). I then asked him for the cocktail menu, as I was looking forward to an icy drink on that particularly torrid afternoon, to which he simply shrugged and said there wasn't one. I could apparently order whatever I wanted, and he said he'd bring it. I ordered a Mojito, but received a pineapple-vodka drink with a splash of soda. He told me that's how they made a Mojito, I decided to stick to my bottled water.

As my drink disappointed me, I jumped on to the starters and ordered the Malaysian Style Prawn and on the chef's recommendation, we ordered the Swiss Meat Bowl. The prawn was described to be an Asian style of sweet and sour prawn dish, but we found it to be very Manchurian like, with bits of chillies, spring onions and capsicum thrown in. I thought it as a complete waste of good quality prawns. The meat bowl had 4 meat balls, that had minced chicken stuffed with mozzarella and then crumb fried. The chicken mince was a little too dry for my taste, and the cheese failed to make any impression whatsoever.

Malaysian Chilli Prawn - very reminiscent of the capsicum chilli-esque Manchurian dishes.

Swedish Meat Bowl with coleslaw

The chef also insisted that we try the new soup that wasn't yet featured on the menu, and we decided to go ahead with that. I got the Pumpkin and Cilantro Soup, neatly separated, and the flavour of the pumpkin really stood out wonderfully, which easily overshadowed that of the cilantro. My friend got the Onion and Cilantro Soup, which to me, wasn't the best combination. The onion soup also tasted more like a lighter version of a basic white sauce and didn't work with the cilantro for me.

Pumpkin and Coriander Soup - lovely combination of flavours.

Onion and Coriander Soup

Since we were exceptionally hungry, we also tried a salad each - I knew I was going to order the Caesar Salad simply because it was served with crispy bits of bacon (and is always a personal favourite). My friend picked a nice, light Greek Salad and decided to top it up with Prawns. I was in love with my Caesar Salad and the bacon bits added the perfect bite to the salad. The dressing, made in-house was fresh and delicious, and coated every bit of the Romaine lettuce. It was oddly topped with grated cheese and served on a bed of sliced tomatoes, that I didn't care for too much. My friend's Greek Salad was mighty disappointing though. We expected a light olive oil and vinegar dressing with herbs, but were instead met with a creamy mayo dressing for the Greek Salad that didn't have much Greek going for it. Lettuce coated in mayo, topped with prawns and a sprinkling of parsley and served on cucumber slices, instead of being tossed with the lettuce. This was their own version of the Greek Salad, I suppose. The only saving grace was the crumbled bits of Feta they served it with.

Caesar Salad with crispy bacon bits and topped with grated cheese

Greek Salad with Grilled Prawns in a thick, creamy dressing.

We finally proceeded to our mains where again, on the chef's recommendation, I ordered the Fish D Casa, which was a nice grilled fish served with creamy spinach sauce on a bed of spaghetti and a side of veggies. The fish was perfectly cooked and I loved the spinach sauce that topped it. The flavours really came together, and the veggies were seasoned with butter and herbs that gave it that extra kick. What also blew me away was the spaghetti, that was cooked perfectly al dente and was simply tossed with garlic, chilli and olive oil - the simple, but delicious flavours that always work. Every flavour on the plate worked to create a beautiful harmony of sorts.

My friend decided to order the Moroccan Lamb Chops, that was their specialty, and it was a Moroccan style juicy lamb served with cous cous & ratatouille. We were hoping for a juicy lamb chop, but the lamb was a tad overcooked and dry. The cous cous also got replaced with 'spicy flavoured rice' that seemed like a Pulav gone wrong. The sauce wasn't too bad, but had only one primary dimension of flavour and lacked a zing. I found it quite boring and monotonous and wished it had more depth. A nice salad/side of mash would have also worked with the lamb.

Moroccan Lamb Chops with flavoured rice

Pretty stuffed with our mains, my friend decided to order one portion of a dessert for the two of us. 3 out of the 5 menu items weren't available, and we settled for the Caramel Custard instead. It tasted pretty average, nothing extraordinary, and probably wasn't the best finish to our meal.

Service also failed to hit the mark, with the servers often confusing the drinks and the dishes up. While they were friendly and courteous, they simply weren't trained enough to completely understand the menu and the dishes. The restaurant is experimenting with its menu and desperately needs to up its food and service to really leave a mark and keep its customers returning. The view is definitely worthy of a visit, but the rest of the elements fail to keep it together.

Overall, my rating:
Food: 5.5/10
Service: 6/10
Ambience: 8/10
Verdict: They're trying out a new menu with some serious changed to be implemented, so maybe wait it out a month before trying it. The fish is definitely recommended.

The Mask is located at: Aurick Boutique Hotel, 598, 15th Cross, 35th Main, 6th Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore
Phone: 080-49011000
Parking: Basement parking available

New Year's Eve at Portland Steakhouse

Happy New Year to all you wonderful people! Hope your year is full of good food and fun. :) (I know I'm a whole 10 days late, but there's no such thing as a late wish, is there?)

Every year on New Year's Eve, I decide to go to one of those parties where I end up paying a bomb and get nibbles of food to eat, if the hordes of people give us a chance. One party, they ran out of food. Another, there was a queue so long, that I don't remember whether I reached the end of the line or not. Once, there was almost a stampede at the food counters.

So this year, we decided to do food justice and indulge in a good dinner instead of those measly bites. Many restaurants were offering some great menus, but after researching, I decided to go with Portland Steakhouse. The restaurant is located centrally and I've never had a disappointing experience so far, so that helped finalize my decision. They offered a 4-course meal along with a glass of wine for Rs.1649/- inclusive of taxes, which sounded like a good deal to me.

We walked in early to have enough time to devour our meal through the night. The restaurant was partially full, and to our pleasant surprise, the staff members had lit a bonfire outside (it's like a verandah just away from the restaurant) and it seemed to generate a lovely warmth through the air.

For our first course, our options were spread across 3 soups and 2 salads. Not being in the mood for the tried and tested tomato soups and clear chicken soups, we decided to go for the salads instead. While my friend ordered the Caesar Salad with Prawns, I opted for the Watermelon, Feta and Cucumber Salad. The Caesar Salad was lovely, fresh Romaine lettuce leaves tossed with Caesar's dressing, croutons, prawns and Parmesan shavings. I would have liked a little more dressing, but my friend didn't seem to mind. My salad was fresh and bursting with flavours. The watermelon, feta and lettuce were coated beautifully with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing that I loved. The cucumbers were sliced lengthwise too thinly, and I didn't enjoy them too much. I would've liked more texture too - crunch of walnuts, perhaps.

Caesar's Salad with Prawns

Watermelon, Feta and Cucumber Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing

Our second course had a lot more options - a total of 10 to choose from, which made us argue a lot over what to order. We eliminated the vegetarian options instantly, and after more such eliminations, we finally agreed on the Pasilla Chilli Beef and Melba Toasts with Salmon. I was quite excited about the Pasilla Chilli Beef - I had the Pasilla Chilli Chicken Wings at a bar in New York, and it was one of the spiciest dishes I've ever tried. The beef here didn't disappoint either. It was quite spicy, and balanced well with the sweetness of the bell peppers. The Melba Toasts were our favourite though. Smoked Salmon over cream cheese with dill spread on toasts make for quite the delicious, light appetizer. Also, say goodbye to table manners when you wolf down this one.

Pasilla Chilli Beef

Smoked Salmon with cream cheese on Melba Toasts

The third course was what got excited us from the very beginning - again, there were a total of 10 dishes to choose from, and it seemed to be quite a meaty affair. They had the Rib Eye Steak and New York Strip in the mains, but since we'd already tried both the steaks here earlier, we decided to try something else. Our other options were Lobster (for which you had to pay Rs.250 extra), Christmas Day Chicken, Duck and Turkey.

My friend picked the Roast Turkey with Gravy with baked sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, and I ordered the Crispy Duck with Chilli Plum sauce. I thought the turkey was a little dry and could have done with some gravy, and then we had someone from the management who offered to top the meat with more gravy (without us asking for it); so they definitely scored brownie points for service. My duck wasn't as crispy as I imagined it would be. I expected fried, crispy pieces of duck, but while the outer skin of the duck was a little crispy, it was doused with too much sauce, softening the skin and meat by the time I tried it. Yeah, one dish had no gravy, and one had too much. :) Other than that, I thought the sweet potato mash and cranberry sauce really stood out.

Crispy Duck with Chilli Plum Sauce

Roast Turkey with gravy, baked sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce

As you may have guessed, we were pretty stuffed by the end of our third course, yet there is always some space for dessert in my tummy. I ordered the New York Style Cheese Cake while my friend ordered Haroon's famous Apple Pie. The apple pie tasted yum and had a nice crunch to it. Though I think it lacked a little cinnamon and sprinkling of castor sugar to me. The cheese cake was beyond delicious, and had a consistency accompanied with that perfect tang to die for. Their apple pie is their signature dessert, but the cheese cake was the clear winner for us that night.

New York Style Cheesecake

Haroon's famous Apple Pie

We ate to our heart's and stomach's content, and couldn't have imagined a better meal for NYE. Maybe they should feature this menu more regularly, they might just have more takers.

Overall, my rating for this special dinner at Portland Steakhouse is:

Food - 7/10
Ambience - 8/10
Service - 10/10
Verdict - They treat meat with respect, and don't disappoint in desserts either. It would take a lot more to convince the vegetarians though.

Portland Steakhouse has a great menu and is easily my favourite place in the city for good steaks. They understand what "medium rare" actually means and the meat cuts (Rib eye, Chateaubriand, New York strip steak), delicious sides and a variety of sauces really makes them stand out from the rest of the steak joints. If you haven't visited this place yet, I suggest you do at the earliest. You won't be disappointed. :)

Cafe Noir

So I know this post is coming a whole month too late, but I genuinely forgot about blogging about this restaurant experience, and also had been held up recently with other things. For our  final pitstop the Restaurant Week India 2013, I picked Cafe Noir as the menu looked like something my family and I would enjoy.

We walked in on a Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. and the place was decently packed. Our server, flashing a beaming smile courteously showed us to our table where we had our menus individually rolled up and tied with ribbons like little scrolls. Wasting no time, we ordered our amuse bouches (pre-starters) immediately. With only two options - seafood and vegetarian, my entire family chose seafood, and I decided to try the vegetarian one instead.

All Around the Seafood was simply a shot glass of warm seafood soup, a deep fried prawn, a slice of bread and a clam shell dusted with basil powder. The soup was beyond revolting and the clam shell made no sense to me. The prawn was bland, but the only acceptable dish on the plate. I had no luck with All Around the Carrot either. A glass of horrid, watered down carrot juice passing off as soup, carrot sticks with aioli and warm carrot slices tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper. You can't go too wrong with this but it just tasted like plain ol' carrot (can't do much). My expectations should have been lower, it's just an amuse bouche, after all.

Amuse Bouche - All around the Seafood

Amuse Bouche - All around the Carrot

But thank God the worst was over, and our 'real' food could start doing the rounds. The menu had a good variety, and we decided to try one of everything. We began with Sea Scallop Declinaison, which had one pan seared scallop on mashed cauliflower and another with beetroot carpaccio. I loved the beetroot and scallop combo, which I never thought of as an ideal pair. The scallops were also perfectly cooked, leaving a good bite. The mashed cauliflower was definitely worth writing home about.

Sea Scallop Declinaison

Our next starter was the Goat Cheese Duo which had honey roasted goat cheese toast on a fig jam base topped with a beetroot stuffed with cream of goat cheese and nuts. For me, this was the best appetizer of the night. The creaminess of the goat cheese and sweetness of the fig jam worked magically. This, along with generous drizzles of balsamic vinegar and a delicious beetroot confit with creamy cheese offered for delightful tastes and textures.

Goat Cheese Duo

We followed this with another vegetarian starter, the Basil Crumb Fried Mozzarella Millefeuille, which was this wonderful fried mozzarella cheese layered with tomatoes and seasoned with a pesto and tomato coulis. If you like cheese, this is definitely something that you would enjoy. Everyone at my table loved this, but I felt that it could get a little 'too cheesy' after a few bites. The pesto and tomato coulis added nice dimensions of flavour, and I was totally taken to the Parmesan chips that accompanied this dish.

Basil Crumb Fried Mozzarella Millefeuille

Our final starter was Chicken Liver Pate with grenadine onions, figs and balsamic reduction. This was something that I picked solely for trying everything on the menu, as my family wasn't too keen on the liver. I thought the pate tasted alright, a bit too bland, but this is liver, so you can't expect anything different. However, when smeared on bread and topped with the onions and figs, this was quite a mouthful. The sweetness from the figs and acidity of the balsamic vinegar created for a healthy balance of flavours with the liver pate.

Chicken Liver Pate

Done with our starters, we proceeded to our mains. My parents don't eat beef, so I decided to order the Tournedos Rossigny for myself. This was a seared beef steak topped with foie gras (more liver pate), served with mushrooms, baby onions duchesse potato and a nice red wine sauce. The steak was done perfectly medium rare, was moist and had all its juices running out the moment I sliced through it with my knife (enormous portion though). The sauce went well with it, but what blew me over were the fabulous Duchesse Potatoes. While these were simply cubed and not in the shape of fancy ribbons and waves they usually are (often piped), they definitely left an impression. Duchess Potatoes are mashed potatoes with egg yolks and seasoning and then baked until golden brown. These were wonderful, really.

Tournedos Rossigny

A seafood lover, my Dad tried the Unilateral Cooked Seabass on a spice crust with eggplant marmalade, honey confit onion and drizzled with pepper sauce. He really enjoyed the fish, and particularly the spice crust. What I liked about this dish was also the generous amount of sauce used to coat it, so that it wasn't too dry and the lovely tang from the eggplant marmalade and honey confit onion.

Unilateral Cooked Seabass

My Mum decided to try the Chicken Leg Confit on a cromesquis with a rosemary sauce and Caramelized Breast with mashed sweet potato and tapenade. The cromesquis is a deep fried croquette with a liquid centre (usually, meat is used with the Cromesquis Foie Gras being quite popular lately), and here, we had the chicken leg in a cromesquis. While we didn't hit the perfect liquid centre with this, the fried croquette and the delicateness of the leg confit with rosemary sauce was quite yum. The caramelized breast was also tender and succulent, and the sweet potato mash was something I personally fell in love with.

Chicken: Leg Confit in a Cromesquis & Caramelized Breast

Quite full with our mains, we were given two options for our desserts - a strawberry based one and a chocolate one. The majority went with the chocolate one and ordered for the 3 Chocolate Ganache which had one layer of dark chocolate ganache, one layer of milk chocolate ganache and one layer of white chocolate ganache served with Noir's specialty chocolate sauce. Yes, that is too much chocolate and I couldn't get past the second bite for this dish. It didn't impress any of us too much.

Three Chocolate Ganache

The other dessert Beverly Hills was strawberry jelly with a salty caramel cream on an almond biscuit served with strawberry coulis. You can tell by the description about the varied tastes that played in our mouth that made this super yummy. The consistency of this dessert was stellar and I loved how it perfectly melted in my mouth, with the almond biscuit giving it a nice crunch. Two thumbs up!

Beverly Hills Dessert :)

And, that was the end of our fabulous meal at Cafe Noir during Restaurant Week India, and I'm glad that we picked this as our final pitstop. I also want to add here that the service was friendly and courteous and our server explained each and every dish to us quite politely and helped us order accordingly as well.

Food - 7/10
Ambience - 9/10
Service - 9/10
Verdict: Definitely go, they know how to create magic with meats.

Cafe Noir is located at:  2nd Floor, UB City, Vittal Mallya Road, Near Lavelle Road, Bangalore - 560001

Phone: 080 4098-2050
Parking: Parking space provided at UB City 

The Mirage

I like trying out new places to eat and I'm particularly interested in newly opened restaurants to check out how they fare in the first few months of the place being opened. So when a friend wanted to catch up over dinner, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out The Mirage.

The Mirage is a multicuisine restaurant in Koramangala serving Chinese, Italian, Mexican and American food. The main course menu tends to leans towards serving Pan Asian food largely though. We walked in on Saturday night at 9pm to find the entire restaurant completely empty. It was a little surprising but we wanted to focus on having a good conversation, so we didn't mind all that much.

We decided to order a couple of starters and ventured with the BLT Crostini and Thai Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce. I could add that communicating with the servers from time to time was a problem as they didn't quite understand when we asked them for recommendations and they were a little confused when we asked them to explain some of the dishes (this happens very often with new places).

Our BLT Crostini soon arrived, and I took one bite of it to reach bacon heaven. The bread was perfectly crunchy, topped with lettuce and tomatoes tossed in mayo and a slice of perfectly crispy bacon. This was such a genius creation that I kept wondering how I had missed serving this as an appetizer for when I have parties at home. The Chicken Satay was well cooked, and tasted good but it wasn't served with the authentic  Asian style Peanut Sauce. It tasted something like a curry paste, but we were too hungry, so we downed it immediately. The cabbage that accompanied it had this lovely sweet chilli vinaigrette dressing that went really well with the meat.

BLT Crostini

Chicken Satay

Their menus are broken down into separate pull out pages of different sections - Burgers, Pizzas, Appetizers, Mains, etc. This was honestly very frustrating as whenever we wanted to explore something else to order, we had to keep fishing out and hiding one menu page under the other. It looked like I was playing Solitaire with menu cards on my table.

The various menu pages

My friend and I being Asian food lovers that we are, ordered a Vietnamese Chilli Prawn with Sticky Rice and a Hong Kong Fried Rice with 5 Spices. The Chilli Prawn tasted good except that it didn't taste of 'chilli', but honey instead. The sauce was excessively sweet. But somehow it didn't taste all that bad to us and we polished it clean anyway. The sticky rice was perfect and had  that lovely balance of salt, sugar and vinegar (they take 20 minutes to make this).

Vietnamese Chilli Prawn with Sticky Rice

Hong Kong Style Fried Rice

My fried rice soon came, and I first noticed some meat pieces in it, and was puzzled (there was no meat alternative to this, it was supposed to be a veg fried rice). I had ordered a vegetarian fried rice and I pointed it out to the server who looked equally confused. He finally clarified with the chef, who apparently claimed to be confused. I could still deal with it, but this could have been a serious faux pas if a pure vegetarian were in my place.

The fried rice was nice and spicy and the accompanying gravy was sweet and sour and I loved all the flavours coming together. The fried rice was also loaded with assorted meats - prawns, crab stick, chicken and bacon, and that added wonderful dimensions of flavour to the fried rice. The quantity was quite large, and we ended up packing some of it to take home.

I'd also like to add that I had ordered 4 other items on the menu for my main course, but none seemed to be available. The Caesar Salad on their Facebook page looked divine, but I couldn't find any salad section on their menu. Upon asking the server, he told me that they did serve salads, but he'd have to check with the chef instead. He returned saying that there was an Asian Salad available. I promptly got excited and ordered it, only to be told five minutes later that it wasn't available. That really ticked me off.

I asked the servers for a feedback card, and they said that they didn't have any. And they said if I really wanted to write, I could write on their Specials Board instead. I figured that there really was no point talking to them and asked to speak to the manager/owner, who also, unsurprisingly, wasn't available.

Overall, while I liked the food, the service and the chaos that came with it didn't make me too happy. I think the management should really invest in training their staff about the menu and should try sticking around (especially on busy nights) for the first couple of months to take care of service and other issues.

Food - 9/10
Ambience - 8/10
Service - 6/10
Verdict - Visit for the food, but ensure you're fully aware of what you're ordering.

A meal for two along with a glass of wine came up to Rs.1400.

The Mirage is located at: 61, 4th Floor, 1st Main Road, Above Corner House, 7th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore
Ph: 080-65333533
Parking: No parking available, but you should be able to park in the many bylanes of Koramangala.

Olive Beach

For my next visit for the Restaurant Week, I picked Olive Beach. Olive Beach is one of Bangalore's most loved restaurants, both by the locals and expat crowd. The lovely romantic ambience, (usually) friendly service and delicious food crown this restaurant as a top favourite amongst many food lovers in Bangalore.

I hadn't been to Olive Beach in a few years and I thought it was about time that I visited the place. Also, their menu looked attractive and had more of a variety in starters and main course relative to the other restaurant's menus I checked out. I wanted to try out everything on the menu, so I decided to go with a bunch of my friends, so that all of us got a chance to sample everything.

Olive Beach's decor is really something to talk about, especially at night time. Everything from the blue gate that leads you to the restaurant, to all of the scented candles placed meticulously around, the soft lighting and lovely green everywhere makes this rank very high as far as ambience is concerned. The entire ambience creates for such a warm welcome that you can't help but just be wowed by it.We went on a Friday evening at 8 pm, and the restaurant already seemed half-full. I walked in and was greeted warmly by the gentleman at the reception. Upon confirming that I had booked a table for the Restaurant Week, the server who was appointed to guide us to our table immediately flashed a frown that never left his face for the entire duration of our meal.

We ordered our starters first, and decided to take one of each, as that was what we had decided. Our server said that we had to order all the 3-courses upfront as it would take time (that didn't make sense to me, how does ala carte work here?). We ordered all the 3-courses like he asked us to, and he left grumpily. I found the server extremely rude in the manner he asked us to order upfront (we had no idea that that was the concept) and he seemed really impatient and irritated when we were discussing who would order which main course/dessert (there were many options and each one had their own preference). 

Once our order was placed, we were starving and wanted to munch on something. We waited for the bread basket for about 10 minutes, but it never came. I wasn't sure whether it was not included for the RWI meal or whether our server genuinely forgot/didn't bother serving us. I finally caught the attention of another server and asked him about the bread basket, upon which we received two plates of bread with olives and butter within 5 minutes. The bread was fresh and incredibly soft and we downed it in no time.

Soft, warm bread and olives.

Our starters soon arrived and we couldn't wait to dig in. I ordered the Potato and Cream Cheese Chowder with sauteed bacon, scallions, carrots and sweet corn (anything with bacon does me in very easily). When I first tried the soup, it didn't taste anything extraordinary, but after having more of it, the cheese and corn tasted lovely and the bacon was super yum. This was a decently sized portion, so fills you up quite quickly.

Potato and Cream Cheese Chowder

Our next starter was Tuna and Egg which was served with nicoise olives, baby potato chips and fresh arugula leaves drizzled with a 5-herbed vinaigrette. Despite the small size, the cut of the tuna was divine and went beautifully with the herbed arugula and the egg. We assumed that the egg was hard boiled by the way it looked, and when we poked it with our fork, that lovely yolk oozed out to coat the arugula as well, offering a party of flavours in our mouths with the tuna. The potato chips were a little too soft for my liking.

Tuna and Egg with arugula

The next starter was the Wild Green Filo Pie where the filling of spinach, mustard and radish leaves were sauteed with garlic, almonds and feta and baked in filo pastry sheets. This wasn't too memorable in terms of taste, as I was really hoping the punch of the mustard or the saltiness of the feta would hit me, but never did. The light filo pastry sheet and the almonds in the filling added nice texture to the pie.

Wild Green Filo Pie

Our next starter was the Baby Mushroom Tart Tatin, which was slow poached mushrooms  layered with a creamy, herbed goat cheese mixture and mushroom ragu in handrolled pastry. Mushrooms and goat cheese generally pair well and this tart didn't disappoint at all. The taste of the goat cheese was highly discernible and blended well with the mushroom ragu. The tart could have been crispier though.

Baby Mushroom Tart Tatin

Our final starter was the Smoked Chicken Salad in a hummus yoghurt dressing served with apple straws, pomegranate and walnuts. I have always been a fan of the chicken and apple combination, so I knew I'd like this salad; I just wasn't sure about the hummus dressing on it though (I never considered fruits dipped in hummus as an idea even). My doubts were put to rest when I tried this salad and fell in love with it instantly. The different combination of textures and flavours in this dish surprises you and you're bound to love it. The meatiness of the chicken, crunchiness of the walnuts, tartness of the apple, sourness of the hummus yoghurt dressing and bite of the pomegranate made this a highly memorable salad for all of us.

The super yummy Smoked Chicken Salad.

Our general reactions to the starters were mixed, but we liked most of them. We geared up for our mains and they soon began to arrive. Again, we took one of each, and I decided to go for a vegetarian option and the moment I spotted Gnocchi on the menu, I was sold and ordered it immediately. This turned out to be decision I regretted.

I had ordered the Gnocchi Alla Romana, the Roman style of gnocchi preparation which was a baked dish made of semolina, Parmesan and cornmeal. It tasted abysmal. There was no seasoning, no flavour to it and the dish tasted plain awful to me. I passed it on for the rest of my friends to try, and they concurred. The gnocchi was served with grilled asparagus and artichoke, but they offered little redemption. What I wanted was the traditional gnocchi stuffed with potato or any other vegetable, and I received something I didn't like. I decided to speak to the chef and he told me  that this was the Roman style and that this was the way they served it. He was highly courteous and offered to replace it with another dish, and I decided to go with the risotto, that was also on the menu.

Gnocchi Alla Romana

My bigger problem was with the fact that the gnocchi preparation/style wasn't mentioned clearly on the menu. Gnocchi Alla Romana wasn't clear to me that it would be anything but the stuffed gnocchi pasta. There should be no room for ambiguity in such a case, and I was mighty disappointed with what I received.

My (replaced) dish arrived, which was a Goat Cheese Risotto with wine soaked pearl onions, spinach and herbs. One look at the dish and I could tell that the rice wasn't cooked long enough. The biggest part of cooking risotto is the constant stirring of the Arborio rice and adding plenty of stock/water to cook it well leaving it just to the bite. This rice was nearly crunchy, not cooked well at all and the flavour of the goat cheese didn't seem to come through at all, making this just as bad as, if not worse than my gnocchi dish. I didn't bother complaining about the risotto as I'd already sent a dish back before and didn't want to make a scene. Overall, I was disappointed with my main course.

Goat Cheese Risotto

Our other main course was the Moroccan Chicken Stew, which was a stew of marinated braised chicken thigh with chickpeas, okra, pearl onions, and served with minted saffron rice pilaf. The stew was very ordinary and honestly, it didn't leave a lasting impression enough that I could write something here about it. I also found the chicken a little tough and the chickpeas hard, and not soft like I would have liked it to be.

Moroccan Chicken Stew

The other mains ordered included the Crusted Sea Bass, which was a parmesan crusted fish with mushroom duxelle and romesco and the Roasted Tenderloin with oxtail and mushroom ragu, pearl onions, green peas puree and fondant potato. The sea bass was lovely with that parmesan crust and the mushrooms went very well with the fish. The tenderloin received mixed reviews on the table and I felt that oxtail and mushroom ragu didn't complement the tenderloin well. I loved the peas puree and fondant potato though.

Crusted Sea Bass

Roasted Tenderloin

Unimpressed with our mains, we looked forward to our desserts with little or no anticipation; but we were pleasantly surprised when the desserts did come along, as they were nothing short of brilliant. First came the Warm Apple Tart with green apple jam, candied apples, cream cheese mousse and praline ice-cream. The apple and cream cheese mouse was a delightful combination and the praline ice-cream added the right amount of sweetness and a lovely crunch that went well with the tart.

Warm Apple Tart

Next came the Lemon Mousse served with a warm citrus cake with vanilla sauce and lemon sable. I LOVED the lemon mousse, and thought it had just the right amount of tang that made it perfect in every way. But trying to finish it single-handedly might be a challenge, as after a few bites, the collective sourness and tang of the citrus cake and lemon sable begin to take over, making it a little too tangy. The next dessert was the Brioche Almond Pudding with frangipane, blueberry compote and vanilla gelato. This dessert was nice, but not memorable. The frangipane had that lovely sweet nuttiness of the almonds that matched the sweet tang of the blueberry compote.

Lemon Mousse

Brioche Almond Pudding

The hero of the dessert round was eggless Chocolate Cake with chocolate cremeux, vanilla cream, cherry and berry sorbet. We simply expected this to be a regular chocolate cake but this cake wowed everyone's tastebuds in an instant. The chocolate cremeux provide for 3 flavours - a lovely sweetness, followed by a slight bitterness and elevated by a salted edge. A hint of chilli was probably the only thing missing. :)

The orgasmic creamy Chocolate Cake

Our 3-course meal finally came to an end and it had its fair share of ups and downs. For me, however, the service (particularly with our server) was very disappointing. He was rude and indifferent to us from the moment we got into the restaurant and was very indifferent throughout. I wouldn't dismiss it as him having a bad day, because he was very friendly with the group next to us, but apathetic only towards us. I gave my feedback in the form given, but I don't know what help that would be of.

My final rating:
Food - 6/10
Ambience - 10/10
Service - 2/10
Verdict - Save your appetite for the indulgent desserts, don't expect the best in food and service!

I've mostly only read glowing reviews of Olive Beach, but my experience wasn't as great as everyone hypes it up to be. The food was merely above average, and the restaurant bill would indeed dent your wallet. If you did try the RWI at Olive Beach, do leave a comment below. I'd love to know how your experience was! :)

Olive Beach is located at: 16, Wood Street, Ashok Nagar, Off Brigade Road, Bangalore
Ph: 080 41128400/+91 9945565483
Parking: Valet available